Throughout Bulgarian history, the dominant pattern of gender relations has always been the patriarchal one. Since 1989, the wind of change in restructured Europe has blown into Bulgaria many new cultural, political and social ideas and influences, but has subdued little of the conservative values and normative gender discourse. In fact, women‘s position in the public and the private spheres did not change much during the transitional period and consequent democratisation and restructuring of the economy, throughout which, Bulgarian women faced numerous challenges in balancing work/leisure and family. Yet, no comprehensive research study exists, which explores the problematics of the work-leisure relationship for the generation of women that came of age during this transitional period. This research study examines the work and leisure meanings for full-time employed, Generation Y, women in Sofia (Bulgaria) in order to shine light on the way they negotiate gendered constraints in everyday life and propose areas for further investigation. To accomplish this aim, feminist, case study methodology is utilised. Moreover, the epistemological problematics of the feminist research process are addressed by the researcher‘s reflexivity and authoethnography. The method of personal narrative is chosen to reflect the invisibility of neoliberal structural constraints and situates personal experiences in the process of existing inequalities. Thus, a better understanding of the role and position of the researcher in this study is presented. The research findings illustrate the ways leisure and work meanings are constructed in the context of post-feminist guise of equality, in which, young Sofian women are now attributed with capacity. This is exemplified by participant‘s conceptualisations of work, leisure and gender culture. Individual women express contradictory view about gender roles, femininity and masculinity that illustrate a collective sense of rejection of feminism (in its mainstream sense) as a threat to heterosexual gender relations. Findings reveal that Generation Y, Sofian women‘s femininity does not necessarily fit into a simple polarity, that is either 'traditional‘ (women as wives/mothers and labourers) or 'modern‘ (assimilating to 'Western‘ values and lifestyles). Rather, their identities relate to both of these selves and are becoming increasingly hybrid and fluid. Their leisure is central life pursuit and arguably exists to empower women to resist gender inequalities, perpetuated by both new and old gender discourses and ideologies. Drawing from the contemporary field of feminist leisure studies with a an explicit focus on interdisciplinarity and post-structural feminisms the study wishes to contribute to existing debates on women‘s multiple leisure meanings and leisure as an experiences that empower individuals and, more broadly, challenge cultural norms about women‘s embodied capacities. Finally, management and operational bodies of the leisure industries can potentially use this case study to facilitate leisure opportunities, services and products for Generation Y, Sofian women, who are now active participants in the capitalist, consumer culture.

Career guidance is a core element of labour market and education policy. Young people’s transitions from education to employment need support through active career guidance. This body of research examines aspects of place and partnership working as it applies to career policy and practice for young people with a particular focus on the role of schools. The engagement of diverse partners from different sectors and interests has become an essential element of public policy and its implementation. To understand partnership working it is critical to pay attention to the relationship between the selection of partners, their combined remit, the scale of their activities and the diverse places in which they emerge. Many of the issues that policy attempts to address are also shaped by, and in, the places in which they are experienced. The research informing these papers has been undertaken as either academic research projects or as funded research over more than two decades. Many have used place-based case studies. The overall finding of this is that deliberative multi-partner engagement has become essential to the provision of pathways to the labour market that would otherwise be blocked for some young people. The centre of gravity in these discussions is the school. As organisations with a geographic footprint, the active engagement of schools in partnerships builds infrastructures, pathways and new spaces of engagement that help their pupils understand the work place. Through the twin policy paths of territorial economic development policy and a progressive socio-political approach to career guidance, policy makers have endowed schools with this responsibility. Schools are spaces of engagement with a wider world and simultaneously they are places that reflect their economic, social and cultural context. Their role as partner and place-maker needs acknowledgement within any national careers strategy that hopes to connect a spatially sensitive industrial policy with a locally enacted careers and labour market policy.

The aim of phase one was to explore the self-concept of young carers and to identify school staff awareness regarding young carers. Eleven young carers (aged 11 to 14) participated in a single session involving a self-concept activity and a demographic questionnaire. The self-concept activity was designed to elicit salient aspects of self in the form of twenty statements. These statements subsequently formed a card sorting exercise to identify which statements were most important to the young carer, and considered positive or negative. Through thematic analysis, salient aspects of self were identified, which included reference to individual traits, interests, competencies, social relationships and family, as well as to helping and the caring role. Statements related to traits and family were found to be most important to young carers. Statements regarding traits and competencies were identified as most positive. 39 school staff respondents completed a questionnaire on defining young carers, internal and external support and perceived effectiveness in supporting young carers. Descriptive statistics were used and analysis was carried out on these data. School staff demonstrated a basic awareness of young carers although some inconsistencies regarding knowledge of the young carer experience still remain. School staff provided detail of internal and external support but felt they could still be more effective in supporting young carers. The findings from young carers and school staff are discussed in relation to relevant literature and strengths and limitations of phase one have been noted. In phase two, five young carers participated in three focus group sessions, seeking to identify valued support. Thematic analysis identified key areas of support that are summarised in an information booklet for school staff. The findings are discussed in the context of relevant literature and strengths and limitations of phase two are identified. An overall discussion situates the research in a wider context, reflecting on future directions for research and implications for educational psychologists.

Citizenship education has been a statutory part of the National Curriculum in English Secondary Schools since 2002. The majority of research papers that have examined citizenship education, plus a key report from Ofsted (2010), have examined it from the perspective of teachers, policy makers or academics. The empirical research seeks to address this imbalance by accessing the views of the pupils themselves, views that I would argue were crucial to the shaping of future educational policy pertaining to citizenship education, in the context of a case study in one particular school. This research, therefore, presents a critical analysis of one interpretation of citizenship education in an 'outstanding school'. It aims to explore young people's views on citizenship education and 'good citizenship' and, further, illustrate why their perceptions can, and indeed should, influence future debate and direction on education policy in this statutory subject.

The mental health of children and young people is a significant concern and recent research points to the key role that schools can play in supporting this area. There is a growing interest in school based mental health interventions and at the time of embarking on this study the Targeted Mental Health in Schools (TaMHS) project was a new three year pilot project which aimed to assist Local Authorities (LAs) to develop their own innovative models of mental health support in schools for pupils at risk of, or experiencing mental health problems. The LA in which the study took place was one of 25 wave one 'pathfinders'. The key aim of the TaMHS project in this LA was to improve emotional well-being in nine project schools. The local model sought to achieve this through building capacity at school level via both the provision of a universal/whole school approach and by incorporating targeted interventions for young people who were at risk of, or experiencing mental health problems. The importance of involving young people in the evaluation of mental health services is an increasingly accepted phenomenon and there are a number of benefits of including children in shaping their own mental health provision. This thesis is an evaluative study of practice in the real world which explores young peoples' perceptions of TaMHS after one year of the project being operational within one LA. The study obtains the views of targeted young people in order to investigate some of the perceived successful and unsuccessful factors associated with the project's implementation and to appraise the initial impact of the project. It also examines targeted young people's perspectives with regard to the future development of the project and reviews the utility of pupil voice in helping to improve school based mental health provision. Qualitative data was obtained from 45 targeted young people who had some involvement with TaMHS using nine focus groups which took place in each project school. Thematic analysis was used to enable the predominant key themes to be reported. The findings serve to highlight that the voice of the child can be used to increase understanding of the initial impact of the TaMHS project in one LA, as well as illustrating positive and negative aspects which in turn can lead to suggestions for improvements to school based mental health provision. Predominant areas that young people felt that the project had impacted on included social skills; interpersonal skills; relationships; behaviour; emotional well-being; and access to activities. Key themes which highlight factors that young people viewed as good about TaMHS incorporated learning; behaviour; interpersonal skills; emotional well-being; enjoyment; and activities. Examples of key themes which reflect how young people felt the project could be improved included environment; extending the project; more of the same; and activities. In light of the findings, recommendations for the development of TaMHS and for school based mental health provision in general are offered.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to inform nursing practice and clinical interventions that support breastfeeding among mothers <24 years of age who resided in a maternity shelter. Methods: Nine young mothers aged 17 to 24, who had initiated breastfeeding, and resided at a maternity shelter, participated in individual semi-structured interviews. This qualitative study was conducted using interpretive description methodology and inductive content analysis. Findings: These young mothers took ownership of their choice to breastfeed and found empowerment in this choice and practice. The institutional and social environments that young mothers experienced were critical to their breastfeeding success. Hospital postpartum nurses had a critical role in the establishment of early breastfeeding by providing a combination of practical hands-on and emotional support to the multifaceted needs of these mothers. Ongoing, accessible, and non-judgemental peer, family, and community support were important to breastfeeding initiation and duration. Conclusion: A combination of emotional and practical supports from multifaceted trusted sources, including professional and peer supports on an ongoing basis are crucial to young at-risk mothers reaching their breastfeeding goals. Implications for clinical practice: Nurses need to focus dually on the practical aspects of breastfeeding while establishing strong therapeutic relationships with this population to successfully provide breastfeeding supports. A combination of accessible and trusted long term professional and peer supports is a key element to designing future breastfeeding support and promotion programs for this population.

Contemporary Canadian music is rarely performed and studied in school music programs (Bartel, Dolloff, & Shand, 1999; Shand & Bartel, 1998; Varahidis, 2012) and post-secondary institutions (Andrews & Carruthers, 2004; Carruthers, 2000). This is primarily because the music of modern professional composers is inaccessible to students (Andrews, 2004; Bowden, 2010). In other words, composers are trained in such a way that their pieces are only playable by professionals for specialized audiences (Hatrik, 2002; Colgrass, 2004; Terauds, 2011). This study examines what eight wind-composers learned from writing educational music for young musicians. Using a narrative framework, grounded in John Dewey’s theory of learning as expressed by Clandinin and Connelly (2000), data was collected through interviews. These were then interpreted and analyzed with the aid of the composers’ biographies and questionnaires. Four story categories emerged from the data regarding how to write pedagogically valid educational music: 1) The composer must desire to compose technically appropriate, challenging and enjoyable music for young musicians; 2) The composer must collaborate and have direct contact with students; 3) The composer must have a working knowledge of the instruments; and 4) The composer and teachers can use the Music Complexity Chart (MC²) as numerous benefits are associated with it.

JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga are widely recognized as three of the most successful recent young adult franchises. Although it may not seem so at first, each of these series has a preoccupation with feminist learning; each series’ author, whether explicitly or implicitly, addresses the extent to which their protagonists and fans can learn feminist lessons within, or from, these texts. Each protagonist does seem to undergo some kind of learning experience, and by measuring these against what feminist education scholars such as bell hooks call a feminist pedagogical model, I show that the reality of what is expressed in these texts does not necessarily align with the ways Hermione, Katniss, and Bella have been discussed by critics and fans. Further, I argue that despite their divergence from the didactic nature of earlier feminist young adult fiction, such as that written by Judy Blume, by making connections between young adult fiction and what fan theorist Henry Jenkins calls “convergence culture”, young readers of Rowling’s, Collins’s, and Meyer’s texts, through their critical and creative engagement with online fan activities, are actually participating in a kind of feminist education that interestingly embodies the aims of feminist pedagogy.

Background: Curtailing adverse social determinants of health is pivotal to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development`s vision for a healthy and inclusive society. In Zimbabwe, fulfilling Vision 2030 may involve adopting socially inclusive approaches, particularly for young people dually afflicted with HIV and substance use disorders. However, social inclusion remains conceptually unclear and underutilized in relation to marginalized groups in low resource settings. This study sought to explore and understand how dually afflicted young adults with substance use disorders and HIV in Zimbabwe experienced and negotiated their social inclusion. Methods: This study utilised a qualitative instrumental case study design. Primary qualitative and quantitative data were collected to develop a thorough understanding of the case of an occupational perspective of social inclusion among dually afflicted young adults in Zimbabwe. The multiple methods used in this study included: i) narrative inquiry with five dually afflicted young adults; ii) in-depth interviews with five key informants; iii) document analysis of seven policies; and, iv) exploratory cross-sectional survey of social inclusion and associated factors (n=105). These multiple methods and sources contributed to the study`s trustworthiness. Multi-level case study analysis was applied as follows; 1st level: narrative analysis of each of the five young adults` stories, descriptive analysis of key informant interviews, document analysis and descriptive statistical analysis of the cross-sectional survey data. 2nd level: thematic case analysis drawing from all four data sources. 3rd level: theorised conceptual occupational constructs. Findings: Five narratives illustrated how using agency and having occupational choices were central to the young adults` experience and negotiation of social inclusion. The overarching Case theme was “Navigating an already troubled life: Striving for belonging and well-being”. This consists of three categories: 1) Dealing with a context of mixed realities, 2) Trying to adjust to new challenges and, 3) Life on the margins. These findings show how dually afflicted young adults in Zimbabwe respond and resist the influences of dominant discourses through dynamic and interconnected actions that shape their realities. Conclusion: The study describes and explains how dually afflicted young adults experienced and negotiated their social inclusion. The data affirms the role of agency and proposes a more critical view of occupational choice, activist occupational choice, in understanding social inclusion. As an emergent concept it is categorized by occupational choices, largely defying standard norms of engagement, and aims to break away from oppressive systems and problematic situations. Recognising the diverse manifestation of agency yields an appreciation for how occupations that are indigenous, collective, and resist oppression contributes to experiences of social inclusion.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master Of Arts in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, 2017 / This study examined the young adults views on parenting styles in uMlazi KwaZulu-Natal.The main objectives of the study were: 1) to explore young adults’ views on the type of parenting styles that they have been brought up with; 2) to find out if there are any differences in the parenting styles from the views of young adults raised by single or both parents and 3) to explore how parenting style has influence the developmental outcome of young adults. A sample of twelve (12) young adults raised by either parents or a single parent from birth to at least 18 years were conveniently selected to participate in the study. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data and the transcribed data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings suggest that the majority of the young adults have been raised by authoritative parents. A good quality relationship between parents and young adults was found to have made a significant difference in the young adults’ lives as it has taught them to be independent, self-sufficient, perform well at school and aspire to be great individuals in the community. It was also observed that authoritative parenting style proved to be the optimal parenting style which majority of the participants preferred to adopt and use on their children. These findings underscore the need for community counsellors to provide relationship training/ family therapy to help families with parental problems.